The Number One Mistake People I Interview Are Making These Days
Give Credit Where It's Due - Ben Dattner
by Ben Dattner | 3:16 PM March 27, 2012 You might remember the FedEx commercial “Stolen Idea”. A boss asks his team for cost-cutting ideas and a young staffer suggests opening a FedEx.com account. Everyone is silent. The boss then repeats the suggestion, without crediting the staffer, and the rest of the team congratulates him on his brilliance. Most leaders know not to act like the boss in the FedEx ad. Give credit where credit is due. Credit team members for crediting one another. Avoid the temptation to blame. As a leader, you need to pay more attention to the allocation of credit and blame to individuals so — perhaps paradoxically — your team pays less attention to it. In one executive team I worked with, a hierarchical culture meant that people were being recognized for their status and power, rather than their performance.
6 Steps to a More Marketable LinkedIn Profile
Overall, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals. Unfortunately, your LinkedIn profile may not be helping you to create those connections. So let’s tune yours up with six simple steps: Step 1. But don’t just whip out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and identify popular keywords. Go a step further and think about words that have meaning in your industry. Use a keyword tool to find general terms that could attract a broader audience, and then dig deeper to target your niche by identifying keywords industry insiders might search for. Then sense-check your keywords against your goals. Step 2. Step 3. Step 4. Share why you love what you do in your profile. Keywords are important but are primarily just a way to help potential clients find you. Step 5. A photo is a little like a logo: On its own an awesome photo won’t win business, but a bad photo can definitely lose business. Take a look at your current photo. Step 6.
How to Start the Big Project You've Been Putting Off - Peter Bregman
I want to write a screenplay. I wanted to write one last year, but other work took more time than I expected, and I kept pushing “write screenplay” off my to-do list. I know I’m not alone in struggling to make incremental progress on long-term projects or goals. How do you get started when you have “all the time in the world”? Maybe you have a project with no deadline, like my screenplay. Doing something big and important is rarely as simple as just getting it done. I know the basic advice: break the work into smaller, more manageable chunks, focus on the next small step that will move you forward, set intermediate deadlines. It’s good advice. Because, ultimately, the reason we procrastinate on a big, long-term project isn’t just because we have too much time or don’t know where to start. We procrastinate on that big project precisely because it’s important. I’ve never written a screenplay. I’m afraid. My screenplay isn’t just mundane work; it’s work I care deeply about.
How to Get Your Kid to Do Chores
(Photo: Ruthie Hansen) There’s a new iPad app for parents to incentivize children to do chores. HighScore House! Co-founder Kyle Seaman tells us that they’ve tracked 150,000 tasks from about 6,000 users in their beta version (full version will launch in a couple months). HighScore House! Here are the top 10 tasks on HighScore House: Brush teeth (AM)Make bedHomeworkBath timeLaundryClean your bedroomHelp cookWash the dishes Feed the dogBrush teeth (PM) And the top 5 rewards: Video games and video game timeStaying up lateTV timeAllowanceSpecial treat
Cabin Porn
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
Exhortation - Summer 2008 Print Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers By William Deresiewicz June 1, 2008 It didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. It’s not surprising that it took me so long to discover the extent of my miseducation, because the last thing an elite education will teach you is its own inadequacy. I’m not talking about curricula or the culture wars, the closing or opening of the American mind, political correctness, canon formation, or what have you. The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you. But it isn’t just a matter of class. I also never learned that there are smart people who aren’t “smart.” What about people who aren’t bright in any sense? There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s intellect or knowledge.
Driving Tips to Save Gas - Save Gas This Summer
Tactic No. 1: Coast to a Stop Brakes are necessary (duh!), but they're inherently wasteful: They take the kinetic energy of a moving car—energy it took pricey gasoline to generate—and turn it into heat that's lost to the air. Everyone knows that accelerating until the last moment then braking hard to stop is less efficient than slowly coasting to a red light. Tactic No. 2: Avoid Slowly Crawling Up to Speed Conventional wisdom says that jackrabbit starts consume more fuel. Tactic No. 3: Close Windows and Use a/c at High Speeds It's a fierce efficiency debate: Open the windows in summer to avoid running your energy-intensive air conditioner, or keep the windows closed and the a/c on to preserve your car's aerodynamic profile. Fuel-Sipping Basics Monitor Tire Pressure Keep your tires properly inflated, because low pressure increases rolling resistance. Plan Errands Carefully Reduce the miles you drive by running all your errands in one trip.
National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 - Alan Taylor - In Focus
National Geographic is currently holding its annual photo contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30. For the past nine weeks, the society has been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to vote for them as well. National Geographic was kind enough to let me choose among its entries from 2011 for display here on In Focus. Gathered below are 45 images from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, with captions written by the individual photographers. [45 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: Many people pilgrimage to Uluru, but what is seen there often depends on where you've come from. Eruption of the Cordon del Caulle. Beluga whales in the arctic having fun. This is a streetcar in New Orleans traveling back towards The Quarter on St. This image captures almost 6 hours of climbing parties on Rainier going for the summit under starry skies. Russia, polar region of West Siberia, Tazovsky Peninsula.
